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United States Patent |
5,762,748
|
Banholzer
,   et al.
|
June 9, 1998
|
Lid and door for a vacuum chamber and pretreatment therefor
Abstract
Replaceable parts for a vacuum chamber including an aluminum lid and a
quartz door and shield, are treated to clean and roughen their surfaces to
increase adhesion of materials deposited thereon during substrate
processing in said chamber, thereby reducing downtime of the equipment.
The parts can be chemically cleaned, rinsed to remove the chemicals and
dried in a first step; subjected to bead blasting to roughen the surface
of the part and improve adhesion thereon of deposited material; in a
succeeding step the part be cleaned ultrasonically to remove all loose
particles; and in a last step the parts rinsed and dried to remove
moisture, prior to packaging or using the part. A novel single-piece
machined aluminum lid has an extension wall from a first surface that fits
into the door of the chamber, and an overlying portion of said first
surface that sealingly engages the door when the lid is closed.
Inventors:
|
Banholzer; Thomas (San Jose, CA);
Marohl; Dan (San Jose, CA);
Tepman; Avi (Cupertino, CA);
Mintz; Donald M. (Sunnyvale, CA)
|
Assignee:
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Applied Materials, Inc (Santa Clara, CA)
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Appl. No.:
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658784 |
Filed:
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June 5, 1996 |
Current U.S. Class: |
156/345.1; 118/715; 118/723R; 156/914; 204/298.01 |
Intern'l Class: |
H05H 001/00; C23C 016/00 |
Field of Search: |
156/345
118/715,723 R,723 E
204/298.01,298.31,298.02,298.34
|
References Cited
U.S. Patent Documents
4466872 | Aug., 1984 | Einbinder | 118/715.
|
4491540 | Jan., 1985 | Larker et al. | 252/628.
|
5017439 | May., 1991 | Brar et al. | 428/629.
|
5051375 | Sep., 1991 | Sakata et al. | 437/10.
|
5202008 | Apr., 1993 | Talieh et al. | 204/192.
|
5233144 | Aug., 1993 | Morino et al. | 219/10.
|
Foreign Patent Documents |
446657 | Sep., 1991 | EP | .
|
Other References
Lee et al, "Adhesion Studies of Magnetron-Sputtered Copper films . . . "
2194, Thin Solid Films, 185 (1990) Feb. No. 1, Lausanne, CH pp. 35-55.
|
Primary Examiner: Dang; Thi
Attorney, Agent or Firm: Morris; Birgit E., Verplancken; Donald
Parent Case Text
This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 08/335,611 filed Nov. 8,
1994, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,565,058 which is a division of Ser. No.
07/936,433 filed Aug. 27, 1992, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,401,319 issued Mar.
28, 1995.
Claims
We claim:
1. A single-piece machined aluminum lid for a vacuum chamber having a
vertically movable door in a sidewall thereof, said lid having a single
perpendicular extension wall extending downwardly from said lid and a
first surface that overlies and sealingly engages said door when the lid
is closed so that the lid extension wall is inside of said door, wherein
said lid is treated by bead blasting said first surface to roughen it,
then ultrasonically cleaning it to remove surface particles and then
rinsing and drying the lid.
Description
This invention relates to improved replaceable parts for a vacuum chamber.
More particularly, this invention relates to replaceable parts for a
vacuum etch chamber that are pre-treated to extend the time for
replacement.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Vacuum chambers are well known and are employed in the semiconductor
industry to etch and deposit thin films and form contacts in semiconductor
substrates during manufacture of, inter alia, integrated circuits.
State-of-the art processing chambers form a part of a system able to
condition and preclean substrates for vacuum processing and process them
without leaving a vacuum environment.
However, a substrate preclean step, while it is effective in removing
material adhered to the surface of the substrate, distributes this
material on other surfaces within the vacuum chamber, e.g., on the walls
or shields, lid and door of the chamber. In time there is a build up of
this material that causes flakes to form on these surfaces that can
deposit onto the substrate surface. At that point the chamber must be
disassembled for cleaning.
The present lid for a vacuum etch chamber comprises a two-piece aluminum
lid separated by an RF gasket, which is a low resistance contact for the
60 MHz RF power supply for the vacuum chamber. Two aluminum plates are
screwed together by a plurality of screws that fasten the two plates
together so they make good contact to the RF gasket therebetween. As
material builds up on the lid however, as described hereinabove, it must
be periodically cleaned to remove the built up material. This is generally
done by a wet chemical cleaning process which requires that the lid be
disassembled, the screws removed, the lid cleaned and then the lid be
re-assembled. However, the act of assembly, e.g., inserting and fastening
the screws, itself creates particles, so that the chamber is not clean,
i.e., free of particles, even after the cleaning step. Other parts of the
vacuum chamber, such as the door for the lid and a shield around the
substrate support that prevents material from depositing on the walls of
the chamber, must also be periodically cleaned; this adds to the downtime
of the equipment and consequently increases costs of manufacture.
Thus it would be desirable to have a vacuum chamber lid that does not have
to be disassembled and assembled again for cleaning; further it would be
desirable to pre-treat replaceable parts for a vacuum chamber so that
particles generated in the vacuum chamber that adhere to the lid, door and
shield surfaces have improved adherence to these surfaces with the result
that the time between cleaning cycles can be extended, thereby reducing
downtime of the equipment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention provides a novel lid and door for a vacuum chamber
comprising a single, machined aluminum plate that sealingly engages a
quartz ring or door, and, when the lid and door to the vacuum chamber are
closed, in turn fits inside a shield surrounding the substrate support.
The lid, shield and door replaceable parts are pre-treated so that
particles generated within the chamber during precleaning of the substrate
and processing thereof will better adhere to these surfaces, allowing more
substrates to be processed before the vacuum chamber needs to be taken
apart and cleaned or parts replaced. This pre-treatment comprises a bead
blasting step that creates an irregular surface in the aluminum and quartz
materials of the replaceable parts, e.g., lid, door and shield
respectively, to which materials or particles generated in the chamber
adhere better than on a smooth surface, followed by removal of all
particles remaining on the surface after the bead blasting step by an
ultrasonic cleaning step of the replaceable parts. This pre-treatment
produces aluminum and quartz door/lid/shield combinations that have a long
lifetime in a vacuum processing chamber.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
FIG. 1 is a cross sectional view of a replaceable lid, door and shield for
a vacuum processing chamber.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart for the process of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 illustrates the novel one piece aluminum lid of the invention, a
quartz door therefor and a quartz substrate support shield for a vacuum
processing chamber. The lid is opposed to the cathode within the chamber
on which the substrate to be treated is placed during processing. The lid
and door of the invention have been pre-treated in accordance with the
process of the invention.
The extension wall 14 fits inside a quartz door 16. When the lid 14 is in
place and the door 16 is closed, the door 16 fits atop a quartz shield 18
which is shaped to surround the cathode 17 onto which the substrate to be
processed is located during processing. The door 16 is raised and lowered
with lid 12 stationary by an externally driven actuator. At the same time
the door 16 is raised and lowered, ceramic fingers (not shown), which pass
through slots in the quartz shield 18, raise and lower the substrate onto
the cathode 17. This occurs during the transfer of substrates into and out
of the chamber. The fixed quartz shield 18 serves to prevent material
etched from the substrate from adhering to the walls of the vacuum chamber
(not shown). The lid 12 also has an overlying portion 20 of said first
surface that contacts and seals the door during processing. A suitable
O-ring seal (not shown) conventionally is used to seal the chamber when a
vacuum is drawn.
The aluminum lid 12 and the quartz door 16 and shield 18 are pre-treated in
accordance with the cleaning process of the invention, described in
greater detail hereinbelow.
The novel lid of the invention requires no screws, thereby generating fewer
particles in a vacuum preclean or processing chamber; has a pre-treated
surface to which particles generated during processing better adhere; does
not require an RF gasket, resulting in better grounding of the lid; and no
assembly or disassembly of the lid is required for cleaning or
replacement. A simple replacement of the lid and the door can be effected
when required, reducing the downtime of the equipment. The lid, door and
shield also can be readily re-cleaned and re-treated for reuse in any
suitable vacuum chamber. Aluminum parts and quartz parts are
recycle-cleaned by a combination of bead blasting and chemical cleaning
steps. The last step in both cases is a bead blasting step followed by
ultrasonic processing in deionized water, rinsing and drying as explained
further hereinbelow.
The pretreatment process of the invention comprises a bead blasting step
followed by an ultrasonic cleaning step.
The bead blasting step treatment of the aluminum lid and the quartz door is
suitably effected by bombarding the lid, the door and the shield using
about 80 psi of pressure and aluminum oxide powder having a rather coarse
grit, suitably about 36-80 grit in size. Bead blasting can be carried out
in commercially available bead blasting equipment. The bead blasting
powder particles must be large enough to make the aluminum surface of the
lid and the quartz door and shield surfaces slightly irregular or
roughened. The machined one-piece aluminum lid can withstand bead blasting
with coarser grit size material because it is thicker than the prior art
two-plate aluminum sheet metal lid, and thus it is more durable. The
irregular surfaces, on a microscopic scale, will enhance interface crack
propagation of material that may be deposited during substrate processing.
The surface irregularities will result in the breaking up of the deposited
films into sections that are small with respect to flake sizes, which
significantly hinders flaking. In addition, the irregular or roughened
surfaces have an increased surface area to which material can deposit,
increasing the amount of deposited material that can be accommodated.
The bead blasting step is followed by an ultrasonic cleaning step that
removes all loose particles on the surfaces of the lid, door and shield,
whether they are due to particles remaining from the bead blasting, or
minute particles of aluminum, quartz, dust particles and the like. The
lid, door and shield are first rinsed with deionized water and immersed in
an ultrasonic cleaner filled with deionized water. Suitable ultrasonic
cleaners are commercially available and are generally set to run at power
densities of from about 35-70 Watts/gallon using a chamber containing
about 10 gallons of deionized water for several minutes. As soon as the
ultrasonic generator is turned on, a cloud of formerly embedded solid
residue is seen to form over the bead blasted surfaces from which it
originated. This cloud quickly dissipates and the solid material removed
either remains in aqueous suspension or settles out. Thus, most of the
activity of ultrasonic processing occurs during the initial few seconds of
treatment. Treatment is usually continued for about 5 minutes however, in
order to assure thorough removal of all loose solid material. The parts
are then thoroughly rinsed with hot deionized water to ensure that no
particles remain on the surfaces of the treated aluminum and quartz parts.
Lastly, the aluminum lid and quartz door and shield parts are dried to
remove all moisture from their surfaces. Suitably the parts can be blown
dry with filtered air or nitrogen and then lightly baked, e.g., at about
60.degree. C. for one-half hour in filtered air atmosphere to remove all
moisture from the parts. The cleaned parts can then be packed for
shipment.
In a preferred cleaning process, prior to the bead blasting step the parts
are chemically cleaned to remove surface contamination, such as oxides
from the aluminum and organics from the quartz surfaces. A suitable
chemical cleaning solution for ceramics for example can be 1/3 nitric
acid, 1/3 hydrofluoric acid and 1/3 water. Dipping the part in the
chemical cleaning solution for about 15 seconds is generally sufficient.
The part is then rinsed with deionized water to remove the chemicals and
blown dry using clean, filtered air or nitrogen.
FIG. 2 is a flow chart of the preferred embodiment of the process of the
invention, showing the chemical clean first step, followed by a bead
blasting step, an ultrasonic cleaning step, and lastly the part finished
by rinsing and drying and packaging the part.
Treating the lid and quartz parts of the vacuum chamber in accordance with
the process of the invention, and utilizing the simplified, sturdier lid
of the present invention, results in a cleaner vacuum chamber, one that
can process more substrates than prior art chamber, reducing downtime of
the equipment, and also provides a fast and low cost method of cleaning
the chambers, and replacing the above-described parts.
Although the above invention has been described in terms of certain
presently preferred embodiments, one skilled in the art will know of
alternative embodiments of processing and equipment which are meant to be
included herein. For example, although semiconductor substrates are
generally silicon wafers which are circular in cross section, resulting in
shields and cathode supports that are also circular in cross section,
other substrates such as rectangular glass plates can also be employed.
Other materials can be substituted for aluminum, such as stainless steel;
and other cleaning and rinsing steps inserted into the process for
particular results. The invention is only meant to be limited by the
appended claims.
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